I started to purchase strictly orchids on ebay a year or so ago but thought i would write a guide about home comfort!Im a blue collar HVAC tech (heating ventilation and air conditioning) that finds relaxation in anything that grows,and am obssevive compulsive about orchids.Yes in construction trades all my life and love the challenge of thoes litte flowers,trust me i hear all about it at work,seems like a odd mix huh!!

Im going to explaine a few things about your home comfort system in a few different sections.Give you advice on the purchase of a new system,and what to ask the contractor.I am not a buisness owner just an employee and want to give friendly advice.I am a journy man lead installer and the field supervisor with 15 years experience in mainly residential retrofit,commercial ,and new construction.

First i will explain the basic system(the different parts).

1. SPLIT SYSTEM

indoors you will have a heater and evap coil.the system will be ither a heat pump,all electric,or a gas fired heating system.in a heat pump the indoor unit will be basicly a fan a coil and elictric heat strips this will most commonly be all in one unit .in a gas heating system you will have a heater and a seperate coil always seperate and fastened together.Out doors you will have the condensor coil.the condensor has the comprressor used in the air conditioning process.in a heat pump the condensor is used for heating and cooling.small explaination of a heat pump,if you go outside and feel the air comeing out of the condensor when your ac is on the air is hot as it is removing the heat from in the house.in winter  the hot air is put in the house and the great out doors is air conditioned!!all there is,is a valve in the condensor that reverses the flow of referigerant.look at it this way in summer you cool the house and heat the outdoors in winter you heat the house and cool the out doors!

2. DUCTWORK

The duct work is the air distrubition system.It is made af a few different materials,retangle,square or,round sheet metal,a fiborus fiberglass material called duct board,and flexible round duct.ive seen it made of concrete,asbestoes,plumbing pipe,wood chases and aluminum.A note on asbestoes,GET IT OUT,its nasty and common on houses 30 plus years old.it is used in venting,lineing duct(yes in your air stream)wraping duct and vent,and there is duct systems made entirely of it.Its expensive and messy to remove but WELL WORTH IT.Its dangerous and a health hazzard.

3.PACKAGE UNIT,ROOF TOP UNIT,GEP.

this one is easy.its all the componets of the above split system,gas or heat pump.Its ither most commonly mounted on the roof but can be on the ground.

we will now discuss the properly installed system what to ask the contractor and why to replace the whole system compared to just some componets.

In todays industry the system efficency,opperating costs,and desighn practices have taken leapes and bounds compared to just ten years ago.In the past we used alot of rule of thumb in desighn and sizeing of an system.as consumers we want something that will cool or heat the house and as utility costs were affordable efficency wasnt as much of a concerne.now days its all about efficency,energy star this and that,green this and that,its all about opperation costs and the ability to use the particular fule, be it gas or electric to its full potential.so for every dollar of fule used I want as much return as possible.energy costs are rediclous.

That being said your ac system is a energy monster if it was installed as little as 10 years ago and VERY commonley even yesterday!

When hveing a new system installed make sure the contractor sizes the equipment properly.to properly size a system you will need to take into account windows,doors,celing height,wall and celing insulation r value,outter wall thikness,appliances ,the square footage of the house,wall and celing material,flooring,flooring type raised foundation or not,summer high temps,winter low temps,humidity,regional info,andyour use of the system.If he doesnt have a tape measure and note pad watch out.your old system could be to big useing un nessary energy or to small useing unnessary energy.The duct system is very important,I cant stress enough about how important it is and how much energy is lost in the air distrubituion system.The average duct system i test has,at normal operating pressures one third or greater leakage.every last one of them!!so as an example a three ton system blowes 1200 cfm of air,in one form of leakage or another you are blowing up to 400 cfm of air somewhere other than in your house.You are only getting 800 cfm into the house,and in some areas you are actually pulling dirt and other stuff into your system.The entire inside of the duct system is considered to be part of the inside of your house,you wouldnt want a bunch of holes in your walls right,but in a sence you have them in the duct system!!You will always have a certian percentage of leakage,in california a new state law requires 4% or less.its difficult to obtain but it is possible ive done it many times.Now sizeing is VERY important also,this can get quite complicated realy quick but im going to keep it easy.all the above measurements are not only used for equipment size but duct size.In heating and air sizeing is now done by loads,a load is anything that adds heat or cold to the house window wall people ect.some areas have large loads and other have small loads.as an example we will use two ten by ten rooms.one with  two walls of windows celing to floor and R11 insulation and the other with 1 small two foot square window and R38 insulation in the same house.this is a basic example but can you see the difference?if you now have a contractor come in an say you have two 10 by 10 rooms and install the same size duct to each room can you see you will have problems with one?Sizeing of the entire system is very important even if you only install a system one year and duct the next,they work together.

well last but not least we will talk a bit about effiency and changeing all the componetes instead of just part of the system.Today thankfully we have systems that are very efficent.The demmand of lower operating costs and high fule costs have produced som pretty remarkable systems.First off we be useing two terms in reguardes to equipment efficency A.F.U.E. and S.E.E.R.afue stands for anual fule utilazation effiencey in heating and seer stands for seasonal energy efficency ratio.in a heat pump you also have SEER and HSPF,hspf is heating seasonal performance factor.Now the HIGHER these two numbers the better.for a furnace you can get a 96% efficent furnace,every dollar you put in in fule you get ninty six cents worth of heat as long as your duct system is sealed!!so on this furnace the afue is 96%.I install a remarkable ac system that is 26 seer.no kidding this is an extremly high seer but like i said it is remarkable if your intrested in the brand name email me as i will provide this at the bottom.we used to install maybe 6 to 8 seer systems and a 10 or 12 seer was a good unit.california law requires a minumum of 13 seer now!.on average i now install 14 to 19 seer units.Ive installed geo thermal units that are extremly efficent but only a few and one in prosses now when i get the seer and hspf  info ill edit it in here!any way the higher the numbers the better!!.

Just make sure the sizeing of the equipment and ductwork is done properly,the duct is sealed and then you can choose the efficency of your equipment.Granted the higher efficency equipment is more expensive but will pay for itself as long as it is connected to a sealed and properly sized duct system.You can even get away with a lower efficent equipment with a proper duct system and still save on the bills.

thirddayorchids

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